Category Archives: Travel

Sooooo, I haven’t made anything very interesting lately. I’m working on a new jackfruit recipe, but until then, thought I’d take you on a tour of Food Fight! Grocery. This is my favorite place to shop when I’m in Portland. The first time I went it reminded me of a little gas station convenience store, complete with pay-by-weight nachos and a vegan nacho cheese pump! I wish they would bring that back. But anyway, there are a million other things to try. I shared a little something with you last year, but this time I tried to take pictures of everything.

Being in a place like this makes you feel like a normal person. Ya know, instead of feeling so…vegan :)

Tons of fancy cheeses. The Chao is a bit expensive compared to Whole Foods, but still cheaper than Harvest Health Foods here in Grand Rapids.

A bunch of meat substitutes ranging from major brands you can find almost anywhere, to random stuff I normally only see at the Asian market.

Frozen pizza, hot pockets, TV dinners.

MOAR vegan meats!

I did not know these existed. Next time I promise I’ll try them!

Corn dogs! Mac n Cheese Strudel!!!

I always see Alpendough on What Fat Vegans Eat, I wanted to try every flavor. I didn’t have time :(

So. Many. Cheez sauces.

At least 7 kinds of vegan jerky here.

Cookies. Cotton Candy. Marshmallow treats.

Four kinds of boxed mac n cheese. I’ve tried all but one now!

I’m dying. I only really had 2 full days to eat, and no checked bag to bring liquid-type stuff home, or this aged nut cheese sauce would’ve been mine!

I haven’t yet found veggie haggis in Grand Rapids.

So this was my tiny haul – and the croissant (filled with pizza toppings) and Charlie Brown bar in the foreground actually came from Sweetpea Baking Co.

I couldn’t stop eating these things. I put them in tacos and filled them with cheese…think I have pictures of that somewhere.

Speaking of cheese. It was a really sad day when I had to go home and leave a bunch of this in my BFF’s fridge because it was opened and wouldn’t have made it past TSA. I ate as much as I possibly could. Next time I’ll try harder.

Would you pay $25 to check a bag just so you can bring special treats home?

FINALLY sorted through my tons of pictures from the Portland Vegan Beer & Food Festival from September 26th! If my BFF has to live on the other side of the country, I’m glad she picked a super vegan-friendly place :D I was due for a visit and this seemed too perfect.

We were lucky enough to win tickets, but even if you paid, it was a decent price and for a good cause – with a $25 non-drinking ticket you got admission to the event, three concerts, and unlimited pours of kombucha. For $45 you got the same, plus unlimited pours of beer. For the $65 VIP ticket you got the same, but you also got in an hour early to beat the crowd and not have to wait in line, and you got access to the VIP lounge. There was also a designated driver ticket, I think it might have been $35? It’s the same as the non-drinking ticket, but with VIP access. And proceeds went to Out to Pasture Sanctuary. Sure you still had to pay for food, the vendors have to make a living!

We arrived early and I knew exactly what I wanted before anything else…

I was reading about Doomie’s on facebook during the couple weeks before the festival. Do you know what they were selling???

VEGAN BIG MACS. In case you can’t read the sign, the price is $15. This thing better be good.

Here’s the Big Mac work station where they make a million at a time.

It got a little scrunched because they cut it in half for us – it’s big enough to feed two!

The buns were well toasted, a little charred. They spread a “special sauce” on the buns and a vegan cheese sauce on the burgers, then added lettuce, pickles & onions. It was wonderful. L said she wouldn’t have known it was vegan, except, ya know…we were at a vegan food festival :)

Next we got a big slice of Spiral Pizza from Sizzle Pie – I love their “Death to False Pizza” slogan! Delicious tomato sauce swirled with caramelized onions. We were pleased.

So this is another one I checked out before the festival, the Grilled Cheese Truck. They’re not a vegan food truck, but they went vegan for the festival and I’m so glad! The menu was awesome, but I could only eat so much.

I went with the “Chicken” and Waffle Melt. I think they used the original Chao flavor for the cheese, it was very tasty with the maple syrup – my little cup tipped over in my dish and soaked one half of the sandwich, and I didn’t mind at all.

Next, BFF wanted nachos so we headed over to Heido Ho. I’ve seen their stuff at Whole Foods and tried one of their chia cheeses. It didn’t really taste like cheese to me, but it was really good and really addicting.

We had the same reaction to the nachos. Not really like cheese, but still delicious.

Okay, now this time I was bad. I found a place selling beautiful doughnuts, really, really beautiful – vegan and gluten free. And they had my old favorite, apple fritter. I forgot to get the name of the place, and…I was so happy to eat an apple fritter again, I didn’t even bother taking a picture. It’s not that I forgot, either. I just didn’t want to waste any time. But anyway, there were doughnuts. And lots of other great looking pastries I would’ve loved to try if I could fit them in my belly.

That was all we purchased, but there were also a bunch of free samples. We visited the Follow Your Heart booth and tried a cheese sample. We also tried a raw cheesecake place that was great, and I found some curry flavored popcorn. And there was more than food for sale.

We checked out some awesome plushies from Panda with Cookie. We actually won a free ticket to the festival from Panda with Cookie, yay!!! I bought a special gift here for my nephew, but I can’t say what it is because we haven’t celebrated his birthday yet!

I also got a lovely pair of laser cut deco-style earrings from Salty & Sweet <—-You can see all their cute earrings (and other stuff) on their website.

Oh. Did I mention…

We also got unlimited pours of kombucha and beer?! I guess I did, but here’s proof. BFF was happily checking off all the many kinds of beer she sampled (I think I had three) while I tried as many kinds of kombucha as possible.

At one point we heard this music start up. “Ha. It sounds like a marching band.”

Well actually,

it IS a marching band! The Love Bomb Go-Go Marching Band. So that’s why we saw people walking around dressed like they were from outer space in the 1960s.

So it was the first ever Vegan Beer & Food Festival in Portland. Did many people attend?

There were a couple.

Maybe a few.

Maybe a few thousand??

In front of the giant chalkboard

I’m not sure what the actual count was, but I’m glad I could be numbered among the throngs of the weird vegans of Portland. I hope this is what our VegFest is like in Grand Rapids next year.

Now that we’ve had fun cooking together all week, maybe you’d like to know where you can purchase some of the ingredients used in the recipes. Pretty much every ingredient can easily be found in grocery stores in most parts of the US (and of course Greece!). Not sure about other countries, but the ingredients are very basic. That said, it sure would be nice for Greece if we bought Greek imports when available. Now some regular grocery stores, like Meijer and H-E-B, will carry at least a few imports. But in some areas, you may need to seek out a Mediterranean or European market.

Krinos and Optima Foods are two of the biggest importers in the US.
Another brand that comes to mind is Arosis, I bought some of their dried gigantes in Greece and now see they’re available in the US. You can even find them on Amazon.
And of course you can always look for products with Greek writing on them :) When you see a product labeled, “Greek xyz,” check to see if it’s made in Greece.
I’ve never seen a Mountain Tea (sometimes called Mountain Herb or Wild Tea) that isn’t imported from Greece. It’s actually a very beautiful herb, usually sold still on the stem and with little blossoms, although in Greece I found it in tea bags.

Here you will find A List of the 25 Best Greek Olive Oils of 2015, as awarded by the New York International Olive Oil Competition (yes, that’s a real thing!). There’s even a key that shows if the oil won a gold or silver medal. Click on the picture of any oil you’re interested in to read a more detailed description and find out where it can be purchased.

I also found a wonderful list of brick and mortar Greek markets in the US and Canada over at The Greek Vegan, many of them also have websites, some that you can order products from.

Keep watching Oh She Cooks on facebook because I’ll be sharing the last Week of Greek recipe from 2 Broke Vegans sometime today! And tomorrow I’ll post the whole lineup of recipes in case you want to cook up a Greek feast for family and friends!